Looking for some audio-visual materials on the English language, introduction to language, and/or language development? Try an advanced search of the Library catologue and limit your search to material type: Video. Most of these materials will be located in the Digital and Multimedia Center, on 4W of the Main Library.

Below is a sample of titles available in the Main Library Digital and Multimedia Center. If you need them for classroom usage or for reserve, please contact John Shaw at DMC (shawj@mail.lib.msu.edu, phone: 432-6123 ext. 287) in advance to make arrangement.

A production of WGBH in association with All Kinds of Minds. [Boston] : WGBH Boston Video, [2001]

Explores the process of acqiring language abilities--the key to succesful communication--as well as practical strategies that parents and teachers can use to help students develop these abilities. Shows children and early adolescents in classroom settings struggling with one or more language levels: phonological processing, morphological sense, semantic understanding and use, sentence comprehension and formulation and discourse. Viewers will gain insights into the complexities of language and the critical role language plays in children's success in school and life.

"Kathy Sylva and Peter Bryant, both of the University of Oxford, and other researchers share their insights into categorizing and codifyinig patterns of play through observation, avoiding common experiment-related pitfalls such as covariation and unintentional bias, and mitigating artificiality, a challenge to practitioners of both approaches"

Examines the development of language in babies and young children. Follows this development from the first cry of an infant through that of a seven year-old. Discusses several theories, including arguments for and against the nature-nurture debate, the interactionist view, the Wharf-Sappier Hypothesis and the question "can non-human animals use language?"